


A River Flowing

by carolinecrane



Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Asylum
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-03
Updated: 2015-10-03
Packaged: 2018-04-24 12:29:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4919620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolinecrane/pseuds/carolinecrane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In her dreams, Pepper can fly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A River Flowing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sweetcarolanne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcarolanne/gifts).



In her dreams, Pepper can fly.

Each night while she sleeps she leaves her narrow cot behind, spreading iridescent wings like a butterfly's and soaring out through the bars of her window to climb up, up until she reaches the clouds. In her dreams the sun is always shining, high and bright and smiling like a welcoming friend. Pepper soars over trees and buildings, cities and country and rivers, all of them sparkling in the sun, happy to see her gliding above them. 

Her wings are wide and strong and so beautiful it takes her breath away. Pepper likes to wrap them around her, to feel their softness as they flutter against her. She doesn't remember the time when she still lived with her family very well, but when she wraps her wings around her it reminds her of being wrapped in a blanket and cradled as though she was something precious. 

In her dreams Pepper is light, so light she can fly higher and higher and never needs to touch the ground. Sometimes she gets close, flying low enough to see the people going about their lives on the earth below her. There are many of them in the cities, hurrying from one place to another without paying any mind to what's going on around them. They never notice Pepper soaring above them, but she sees them all the same, and she's sorry for them that they have to hurry away so fast. 

Pepper never hurries. She floats along as slowly as a cloud, her head turning this way and that so she doesn't miss a single thing. There's so much to see in the world, and she wants to see every bit of it. She wants to see the ducks in the pond at the center of the park below her, their legs furiously paddling under them even as they look so calm on the surface. She wants to see the children in their desks inside the red brick school -- normal children, happy children whose parents tuck them in every night -- being taught all about the world outside their windows.

Pepper has a window too, in the day when she has no wings. Outside is a view of the woods surrounding the hospital, but the glass is dirty and smudged enough to block out the sun. Pepper doesn't mind, because she knows that once she closes her eyes, she'll have a much more beautiful view. Mountains and valleys and deserts and other things she's only seen in books or the movies they sometimes show in the Day Room. Pepper likes the movies, but she likes her dreams better, because her dreams are in color.

Beautiful colors: the bright yellow of the sun and the cheerful green of the grass, sparkling blue of water and flowers and birds of all shades. In her dreams even the bugs are bright, and she can see them all. Pepper sees everything in her dreams, and that includes all the colors she never sees when she's awake.

There isn't much color at Briarcliff. The Sisters, Doctor Arden, the guards -- they don't have any colors. The other patients don't have colors either, mostly. They say mean things to Pepper sometimes, just like the guards. But she doesn't mind much, because she knows that all she has to do is close her eyes, and the whole world will be waiting, just for her.


End file.
